The need of children for physical activity and development has resulted in the provision of a wide variety of playground equipment such as swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and the like. While such apparatus stimulates play, including physical activity, the limits of the notoriously short interest spans of children are quickly reached on playground equipment of this kind. In using a slide, for example, children soon weary of climbing the steps to the top and sliding down, even though they may try sliding in lying position after a few slides in sitting position, etc. Challenges are limited and quickly satisfied and the equipment loses its attraction to the child.
A careful study of the propensities of children vis-a-vis play equipment has indicated that conventional playground equipment does not satisfy the needs of children for mental as well as physical development. Having quickly met the challenge and accomplished the use of each available piece of equipment in turn, the child looks about for other adventures. Children's play is an arousal seeking behavior and children play for the stimulation that they receive, not just to burn up energy. The lack of complexity, that is, the inability of an apparatus to offer something of an order beyond its most obvious, basic function, is believed to be the primary deficiency of the traditional slide, seesaw, etc. Intriguing novelty, imagination stimulating complexity and challenge that will not be denied are lacking in such conventional equipment.
The object of the invention herein described is to provide play apparatus which is intriguing to children because it provides a thrilling ride and which is challenging to a relatively broad age group because its use requires both "nerve" and physical coordination skills. An interrelated object is to provide self-operating means to limit access to the apparatus to those children having sufficiently developed motor skills to safely ride the cable passenger pulley.
More specifically, the object of the invention is to provide a cable slide sloping from a starting platform downwardly to a terminal tower which is provided with a cushion to absorb the impact of a child still moving at the end of the slide. A chain or tire ladder or other device that can be climbed or otherwise negotiated only with some difficulty provides the only access to the starting platform. A terminal tower may also be equipped with a platform for spectators and also with simple recreational apparatus, such as swings, which offer contentment while watching other children perform on the cable slide or awaiting a turn.
The form of the structure and the manner in which these objectives are achieved will become apparent as the detailed description of the invention proceeds.